Friday, January 14, 2011

Climbing Back On The Soapbox

On the front page of the Winston-Salem Journal one day this past week, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina was quoted in a way that makes me ashamed to be from North Carolina and to have him as one of the national representatives of our state. He announced that he is opposed to government medical assistance to those suffering from HIV / AIDS if they caught it from living a "perverted lifestyle." As I read the article, I could feel my temperature rise. The "gentleman", based on this published statement, previous published e-mail from him, etc. is clearly homophobic. This is the same type of person that, several years ago, would have used the "N" word and thought nothing of it. I would guess that he realizes that there are more voters of color than there are of a different sexual orientation, so he tones down one set of rhetoric while increasing another. He is still no one that I would want for a neighbor nor for whom I would ever cast a vote. It is very hard for me to believe that he ran unopposed and I hope that doesn't happen again. While it may be true, and I've not studied enough to know, that AIDS was once spread mostly by homosexual activity, that is not the case today. AIDS has reached a pandemic level on the continent of Africa, the country of Haiti, et. al. Does this man think that the population of those places are all gay or lesbian? Again, I do not know if it has been largely controlled in the U.S., but I do know that we cannot let the sick suffer! Based only on the picture of him published with the article, I suspect that he is overweight. Surely we are intelligent enough to recognize that eating unhealthy foods and failing to exercise are often causes of stroke, heart disease, diabetes, and other diseases. Since he probably lives a perverted lifestyle of eating unhealthy choices and exercising seldom, it would follow that he wouldn't want any government medical support of persons suffering from the mentioned diseases and others. Where would he draw the line? I see his thoughts and statements as a perversion of the type of persons that God would have us be. I have two prayers: my family and friends will continue to be merciful toward the sick, no matter the cause of the illness and that those reading about this person will realize that, while he represents North Carolina, he is not representative of North Carolina. God is good!

1 comment:

  1. I agree with you 100%. My pastor Dr. Tom Austin (deceased) and a church member Kitty Bowman (deceased) were two of the ones who started Aids Care in Winston. The other member was a nun and I can't recall her name at the moment. My church and I have supported this organization both with bodies to help as well as money. One of our members now resigned recently from being their director. The new director spoke to us the first Tuesday of this month and showed a video of the facilities now. I have always worked to help the LGBT community and my life long male friend from Hanes High who lived on Bon Aire was a member of my church. We were constant companions after my divorce. We traveled together, spent time playing cards, scrabble, etc. in my home. It was a joy to know him. He suffered from depression a lot and never found the joy in his faith nor did he ever really accept his sexuality. His faith told him it was an abomination and he really felt it was. Terrible times for him. I hate what our government officials think about LGBT folks and the way they talk. I hate that the victims of this rhetoric cannot have the same equality as we do, etc. Things are bad but we must keep trying to help where we can. My being a member of C.H.A.N.G.E. gives me a good avenue to help make a difference in many things in our community. Thanks for your thoughts on this subject.

    ReplyDelete